Keep your PC up to date with the PC Gamer Rig

Readers of the UK mag (and our forum) will be aware of the PC Gamer Rig. It's what we keep in various stages of disrepair in the office and consider to be the 'average' PC – one that's not too expensive, but specced up well enough to run any game past or present at a respectable lick. It functions both as a guide to the sort of base system we'd expect anyone buying or building a new machine from scratch, and as a guide to upgrades if you're looking to just replace a single part.

The arbitrary budget we set ourselves for The Rig is £1,000/$1,500, but we'll always try to get the best value possible out of it. We're a little bit over budget this month before of the sudden rise in hard drive prices as a result of flooding in Thailand, but we reckon they'll be back down again soon. The general idea is that if you want to put together a PC that's better – be our guest. But this is a sort of 'PC Gamer Recommended Specs' – generally speaking, spending less will be a false saving as performance or longevity will suffer.

In its new online incarnation, we'll be using The Rig to flag up new hardware releases and kit we're testing in the office, find new and better bargains online, and benchmark new games as they come out.